Tom Skilling

Tom Skilling, WGN-TV chief meteorologist, appears weekdays on WGN Midday News, WGN Evening News and WGN News at Nine. He celebrated his 30th anniversary with WGN-TV in August 2008. Since 1997, Skilling has masterminded the weather page in the Chicago Tribune. In the city of Chicago and beyond, he has become the superman of meteorology: when in doubt, it is Tom that the city turns to when figuring out the mysteries of nature. WGN-TV received the 2005 Environmental Reporting Award from the Audubon Society, an accomplishment that is due to Tom's performance.

Tom's passion for weather, his graphics-packed presentations and tireless attempts to explain the weather, led to a daily column...
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Tom Skilling, WGN-TV chief meteorologist, appears weekdays on WGN Midday News, WGN Evening News and WGN News at Nine. He celebrated his 30th anniversary with WGN-TV in August 2008. Since 1997, Skilling has masterminded the weather page in the Chicago Tribune. In the city of Chicago and beyond, he has become the superman of meteorology: when in doubt, it is Tom that the city turns to when figuring out the mysteries of nature. WGN-TV received the 2005 Environmental Reporting Award from the Audubon Society, an accomplishment that is due to Tom's performance.

Tom's passion for weather, his graphics-packed presentations and tireless attempts to explain the weather, led to a daily column and his own weather page in the Chicago Tribune and a weekly series on WGN News, "Ask Tom". Tom is a member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the National Weather Association, and Sigma Chi. He serves on the AMS nominating committee and holds the AMS's Television Seal of Approval. In January 1995, Tom received an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Lewis University in Romeoville, Illinois.
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Dear Tom,
What can cause a random megacryometer to fall from the sky?
— Kevin O'Connor, North Aurora
Dear Kevin,
Megacryometers are huge chunks of ice that on rare occasions fall from a cloudless sky. Weighing from 2 to 400 pounds, they have...

Dear Tom,
We've already had a 70-degree high this spring. Are we likely to get more measurable snow?
— Jonathan Hodges, Kankakee
Dear Jonathan,
Longtime Chicago residents have learned that early-season warmth does not equate to the end of the...

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Dear Tom,
Wasn't the brutally cold winter of 1935-36 an island, surrounded by a sea of unusually mild winters during the rest of that decade?
— Brian Beecher
Dear Brian,
It was. During the 1930s, widespread portions of the Plains and Midwest experienced hot, drought summers and mild winters during the period known as the "Dust Bowl." Yet, embedded in that period of warmth, Chicago experienced its ninth-coldest winter on record: 1935-36, which averaged 19.8 degrees, well below the current 26.4-...

Dear Tom,
Why does the wind blow?
— Sally Johnson, Kenosha
Dear Sally,
The fundamental cause of wind is unequal heating of the air. For example, on a sunny and mild spring day, air over communities like Kenosha andChicago that are adjacent to Lake Michigan becomes warmer than air over the lake. Because cool air is more dense than warm air, a given volume of cool air will weigh more than the same volume of warm air. The greater weight of cool air causes it to exert greater pressure. Air...

Chicago set a new record low overnight, but temperatures are expected to spring forward through the weekend and we could be basking in the 50s under sunny skies by Tuesday.
The low overnight was zero degrees at O'Hare International Airport, breaking the old record of 2 degrees set in 1960. In places like DeKalb and Harvard, it got down to minus 6. Wind chills were minus 20 in Harvard, minus 15 in Romeoville, minus 14 in Waukegan, minus 14 in Kenosha, minus 14 in Lansing, minus 14 in Dyer, Ind. and...

Dear Tom,
What is the Maunder minimum?
— Bob Kozlik, Riverwoods
Dear Bob,
The Maunder minimum was a period of extreme reduced solar activity that occurred from about 1640 to 1715. It was named for British astronomers Annie and E. Walter Maunder, who along with the German astronomer Gustav Sporer, did extensive research on sunspots. This period approximately coincided with the "Little Ice Age," which spanned about 300 years from 1550 to 1850. During this period portions of Europe, Asia and...

Dear Tom,
I note that during the winter months New York City is consistently warmer than Chicago. Why is this?
— Dave Gavin, Mount Prospect
Dear Dave,
New York City and Chicago sit approximately the same distance north of the equator, and it might seem reasonable to expect them to experience similar wintertime temperatures. But that's not the case, and the Atlantic Ocean makes all the difference.
Chicago's average winter temperature (December through February) is 26.4 degrees; New York's winter...

As if braving the frigid February temperatures hasn’t been bad enough, Chicagoans have been in the depths of a serious dry spell.
While the sub-zero temperatures—which contributed to last month's tying the coldest February on record—have been the focus of icy-breath conversations in the city, the dry air both inside and out also has the city itching for any sign of spring. While data on the dryness of the air isn’t tracked day-to-day, WGN Meteorologist Tom Skilling says...